The Cure's Vessel
by Narwhal-Riding-Alien
Summary: Emma Sterling was dead, then not. An angel made her run off with two men, one of which hated her guts, the other protected her as much as he could while having a bad addiction. The ghouls aren't what she thinks strange about her new life; its the bonds stronger than death that stun her. Broship between Sam and my OC, and eventually Dean. Bigbrothers!Sam and Dean. set season 4 on.
1. intro

**wow, look at me, submitting another story when i haven't updated my other yet. oh well. i'm just posting this to see if anyone will be interested in this story besides my friend at school who has already read everything that i've written for chapters waaaaaaay later in the story...**

**so this takes place at the beginning of season 4, after Dean came back from Hell, but Cas is still really loyal to heaven *sobs* my OC will not be making an appearance this chapter cause its just... i still havent written a piece to fit between when they meet her and where i end here... but she wont have romance with the boys, shes just like a little sister, but not really, cause ~spoilers~**

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In a high school bathroom, a young boy walks into a stall. As he takes out a sharpie instead of sitting on the toilet, the stall door locks behind him. He takes a quick glance at it, and continues to draw on the stall wall with his sharpie. The light flickers, and he stands up, almost finished with his graffiti.

"This fucking school..." He mutters, "Can't pay for proper lighting." he turns to the door and tries to unlock the door. It doesn't budge. He struggles with it more, before dropping to his hands and knees to just crawl underneath the door.

He is met with some one kicking his face, then opening the door and lifting him by the collar. He struggles for a moment, but his nose is bleeding hard, and the loss of blood is making him dizzy.

The owner of the hand and foot shove his head into the toilet, and doesn't let go. After about twenty seconds he starts to panic. This isn't a normal teasing or bullying. The boy struggles and screams against the water, only letting more of the foul liquid into his lungs. His hands lash out to the walls of the stall, before going limp.

The boy is left in the stall with his head shoved under bloody water.

"Hey dean, I think I just found a case." Sam called across their small motel room in Kansas. Dean grinned.

"Good, I'm dying of boredom. What's going on?"

"A high school in Albuquerque, New Mexico had a few students go missing, only to find them in the bathrooms, their heads in the toilet full of bloody water."

"Killer ghost of a student, bullying the kids? Huh." he stands up and puts on his jacket. Sam looks up at him quizzically.

"What, no 'are you sure it's not a suicide or normal bullying?' Are you alright?"

"I'm fine, Sammy. We learned from that last school we went to that Students wouldn't do shit like that, and it sure doesn't sound like a suicide to me." He flipped the collar of his jacket up. "Let's go."

"Alright, let me pack up." Sam started, but Dean was already out in the impala.

"So when we get to New Mexico, we can go get tacos, right?" Dean asked as he drove down a highway, headed west. Sam rolled his eyes.

"Fine, but it depends on when we get there."

"Alrighty. So did you do research for the case?"

"Do you really think I wouldn't?"

"Right... So what did you get?"

"The high school is called La Joder High, and it is placed across the street from St. Anthony's cemetery." Dean snorted at the idea of a school and cemetery next to each other. "The school has been around for over 90 years, but about 20 years ago give or take, it changed from downtown to where it is now, which is just a little east of the big part of the city."

"So were there any killings there? Serial killer? Witch? Something supernatural?"

"From what I could find, like many of the people in New Mexico, people there believe in ghosts and claim to have seen some in the building... None of which have hurt anyone until now. The kids are all superstitious or religious, so they would take precautions from their beliefs to ward off vengeful spirits. All of which seem really bizarre... One thing about putting eggs by your head while you sleep... Anyway."

"So if these kids take precautions, how are they winding up dead?"

"Well, some kids don't believe in ghosts, or they just want to be rebellious. She must be targeting those kids." Sam explained without much thought, pulling his computer out of his bag.

"Wait wait... She?" Dean asked, making a face. "How do you know it's a she?"

Sam opened his laptop and brought up a student file. "Emma Sterling, born 1981. only child to Joseph and Sofie Sterling. Average grades all her school life until the end of her sophomore year, when she was diagnosed with severe social anxiety and depression, which normally go hand in hand, but not at that level. After nearly a year in therapy, the root cause of her anxiety was found to be her parents and the fear of growing up. From what happened, I'm guessing her parents weren't very happy with themselves being a cause to their daughter's stress, because during the last month of junior year, she killed herself in one of the school bathrooms by slicing her neck open into one of the sinks. She was 17, and that happened 10 years ago."

"Well then. We are looking for some bones to fry. Where was she buried?"

"St. Anthony's, across the street from the school."

"Well that makes it easy. Find the school find the body." Sam nodded in agreement.

Dean turned the music up, blasting Dust in the Wind though the car speakers, and making Sam wince.

"Jerk."

"Bitch."

Several hours and crossed borders later, dean crossed the new Mexico from the Texas side. He pulled into a gas station on the side of the road and handed Sam a handful of dollars.

"Get a few beers and snacks while I fill up."

They both got out of the impala, and Sam walked up to the small, shady-looking adobe building. An electronic bell rang when he walked in, but nobody was around. No cashier or customers in sight. He narrowed his eyes and walked farther into the store, over to the beer section. He looked at the beers, but his nerves were set on danger mode, and he kept his hand on the demon knife in his pocket. He chose the cheapest beer they had, then grabbed a bag of chips, but as he walked to the counter where a bell sat to call out a worker, the main doors opened.

Sam spun around quickly, to see his brother getting his wallet out. And looking at him quizzically.

"what? They don't have pay at the pump. Where's the cashier?" Dean asked, walking past Sam to the counter. He looked around, then rang the bell until a dark skinned man with black hair came out of a back room. Dean rang the bell one more time when he saw the worker, just because he could, then waved his wallet in the air.

"Beinvenidos, amigos. What brings you here to the middle of nowhere?"

Before Dean could reply, Sam stepped forward and put the beer and chips on the counter. "Just filling up and buying some necessities for the road, thank you."

The man nodded and scanned the items. "De nada. Where are you two muchachos heading?"

"Albuquerque. We have family we are visiting."

"Could I pay for the gas?" Dean interjected. The cashier smiled at him thoughtfully and tapped his chin.

"You two seem nice, how about I pay for your gas? I wanna make your day a bit better."

Sam and Dean looked at each other and shrugged. "okay, thanks man. Meet me back at the impala, Sammy." Dean spun on his heel and walked back out to his car. The cashier handed the bag of groceries back to Sam, who paid him a little more than he needed, for a tip.

"Gracias, Sammy." The man said as Sam headed towards the door. He turned and stared at the Hispanic man.

"How did you know-"

"Well your companion just called you Sammy, unless he was talking to the devil and angel on your shoulders, of course!" The man snickered and walked over to the back room with a wave.

Sam shook his head and calmed down, then walked out to the impala, getting into the passengers side.

Back in the gas station store, the cashier sat down in the back room, and his eyes glowed with a blueish white light.

"They are coming. Right on schedule. They should be in Albuquerque in two hours." He paused, then nodded. "Yes, I will keep an eye on them." light burst through the mans chest and rose through the ceiling to the sky, then invisibly followed the Winchesters.

The body left in the store collapsed back to the ground, and then the man groaned and stood up, rubbing his head and looking around. He shrugged and walked to the cash register and began playing on his phone.

"What a nice guy, I think I like New Mexico already." Dean said happily as he drove west, down a barren desert road.

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**well, yeah. that's it for now. if you like it or have something to make it better, please review or PM me. **

**i literally edited this in like five minutes, so i am sure there are mistakes, but i will do better in the next update. and i will only update if i get more than five reviews, or at least one person who is as excited about this as my friend at school is. and i doubt that'll happen from the amount of information i've given you guys so far, so there ya go.**


	2. back from the dead, I guess

**alright, even though i didnt get 5 reviews, i know you guys probably want to know what it actually going to happen in this, so here, have some feeling crushers. of course, i am REALLY hoping for more than one review on this one, (thank you DarkLight2589) it is MUCH longer, and i am planning on making each chapter pretty much an episode, ut i aint promising anything.**

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By the time the boys had gotten to Albuquerque, it was about four in the afternoon. The afternoon-turning-evening sun beat down on the black impala, and Sam tried to cool off by opening his window, but it just made it worse.

"Dude, I think this place is hotter than hell." dean said, wiping small drips of sweat from his neck. "let's find a motel before we do anything else."

Sam nodded as he put his window back up and ran a hand through his long hair, and Dean turned off the interstate on the next exit he could find.

On one side of the road was a steep brown hill full of dry desert grasses and glass shards, and on the other side were billboards and rock art. They were driving up a curving hill, and we're both relieved when they saw a bright yellow Motel 8 sign ahead a couple yards.

Dean sped up the rest of the hill and pulled into the lot, parking with little difficulty. They walked up to the small adobe complex, their few bags in hand.

Once they had a room, Dean jumped into the shower, and Sam stripped off his damp shirt. He turned on the tv to the local news station, to see if he could get more information on the murders.

"-ell that was an interesting video, wasn't it John? My favorite part was when the pizza hit the ceiling!" the news woman said, smiling like all broadcasters tended to do. "now back to the story that has left many families in shambles. The deaths of about five kids at La Joder high school. All the victims were young boys 15 to 17 years old, and were all found in the bathrooms, bleeding profusely through their noses." pictures of the five boys flashed on the screen as the woman continued.

"could this be the work of a bully? A serial killer? Or is it some sort of chain suicide? More on this report at ten."

Dean got out of the shower with a towel around his waist. "all open for you, dude."

Sam nodded and tossed his brother the remote as he went to take a shower. Dean flipped through the channels a few times before staying on cartoon network and watching Adventure Time and Mad. When Sam got out of the shower, he just sat on his bed and watched the cartoons quietly besides the occasional laugh.

Several hours later, once the sun was low in the sky, turning it a bright mix of pinks and oranges, the brothers got back in the impala. Sam had gotten a map to La Joder, and as it turned out, the high school was an easy six blocks away from their motel, and that meant that the cemetery was too. With their trunk loaded and salt rifles at the ready, they headed south west to the school.

"Alright, here's the plan." dean Said as he tapped the wheel to the beat of Kansas. "I want you to go in the school and make sure she is there, and not attached to something a kid might've taken home or something. We don't want her killing an entire family."

Sam chuckled and said, "I'm not sure an entire family would fit in a toilet."

Dean snorted. "you know what I mean. Make sure she's there and keep her from killing anyone who could still be there. I will dig up the bones and burn her up."

"Yeah, I get it. Just drop me off and I will keep her in one place. You sure you are alright?"

"Why wouldn't I be?"

Sam looked at dean from the corner of his eye, trying to see if he was bluffing, but his brother's poker face stayed. He sighed and looked back at the road and the setting sun. "I mean, you were in hell. I'd think that takes a toll on a guy."

"I told you, Sammy, I'm fine. Besides, even if I wasn't, I wouldn't let it get in the way of a case. Oh hey, look there's the school." he pulled up to a large school with a sign that said "La Joder Roadrunners"

"Haha, it's like Looney Tunes! I bet their rival school are the coyotes!"

He pulled to the front doors, and Sam got out, then moved to the back to grab his bag. He hefted it over his shoulder and waved at dean as he made his way into the building.

In the impala, dean sighed and closed his eyes for a moment. He only opened them again when he started having the feeling of his arms being torn to shreds. The feeling went away as soon as he opened his eyes, but his hands shook when he ran them through his hair and started to drive across the street to the cemetery.

Sam wandered the hallways of the school, holding his shotgun near eye level so he could shoot at short notice. He saw A figure pass in the corner of his eye and he turned quickly, but saw nothing than a vending machine with a flickering light.

He stepped forward slowly, eying the flickering light. Suddenly, a packet of salted peanuts flew out of the machine and his Sam in the face. He stumbled backwards as the nuts fell to the ground, then he shot at the machine. Nothing happened. He sighed and looked around. A girl stepped into the hallway from some sort of office. Her reddish brown hair messed up, and her clothes in tatters. Her shirt was black and caked with dirt, and her jeans were ripped in the knees, with dirt stains like her shirt. Blood seemed to constantly pour out of her neck, staining the neckline of her shirt.

She tilted her head at him and snarled. As Sam raised his shotgun and shot at her, she lunged. Her quick movements made the rock salt miss her chest, and hit her shoulder. She stopped mid-leap, and looked wide-eyed at her shoulder.

"What? Never been killed before?" Sam taunted, stepping closer to her. She went to her knees and her appearance changed. The blood vanished, her clothes cleaned themselves (although her jeans stayed ripped) and her hair brushed itself out. She looked up at Sam, who had lowered the gun slightly.

"what am I doing wrong?" she asked, her voice scared.

"wh- are you kidding me?" Sam asked, "you're killing kids! That's not wrong to you?"

"oh I see." she stood up slowly, arms crossed. "you idiot. If you kill me, then those killings will just get worse."

"oh, like that is supposed to make me not kill you? Things like you lie."

The girl sighed, "look, hurting people is the last thing I want to do. What I want to hurt is whatever is killing the kids here. Come with me." she waved him to follow her as she walked towards the library, then sighed again when he didn't follow. "guy, I'm not going to hurt you. I'm going to explain some shit to you, so follow me god damnit."

"Alright, fine." Sam slowly followed the girl, until she walked through the doors to the library. After a few seconds, she opened the door and smiled.

"Oops, sorry. I forget humans can't walk through matter, sorry"

"What are you showing me?"

"Jeez, hold your horses." she turned and walked to a bookshelf in the back. "so I committed suicide about... Ten, eleven years ago. My parents gave me so much pressure and stress that It lead to anxiety, which lead to insomnia. My mental health just spiraled downwards into a big pit of psychopathy. I couldn't have normal relationships, because I was paranoid that everyone hated me. I... Honestly don't know why anymore. But the important thing is that I killed myself. I slit my throat into one of the sinks. Some guy I later realized was a reaper came to me, telling me to go with him, but one look at my few friends, who were a wreak, and I knew that I couldn't go. So I said no." the girl knelt down by a bookcase and pulled out a small book, then stood up and started to walk back over to Sam. "I realize now this was very weird, because he just let me go. I said I had to protect my friends from the same fate, and he left." she's at down at a table and motioned for Sam to do the same. He slowly sat down across from her.

"And you have lived here for ten years, even after your friends left?"

"Well yes and no. I'm tied to the graveyard too, so i can teleport from here and there. But that's besides the point." she gave him a dark, stern look before continuing, "ten years is a long time, and you can get bored. You find things that you sometimes wish you never did."

"What do you mean?" Sam asked, gripping his gun.

She passed the book to him, "I found this in an old stack of never used books. I studied it because I was bored, and... Started to notice things."

Sam picked the book up and flipped through it. Pictures of demons, hell hounds, spirits, and many more supernatural things littered the pages, and there was information of how to kill the majority of the things. It was like a mini version of his dad's journal. Perhaps a hunter kid had left it and never come back.

"So, when you mean notice you..." he muttered, continuing to flip through the book. He knew everything in it and more, but it was still interesting.

"Yeah. I noticed traces of demons. The smell of sulfur once, some angry ghosts of students, it scared me, and then I got kinda angry. So I did everything I could do to keep these things out of this school. This is my territory, and I am going to protect it, damnit!" her brown eyes flared white in the flash of her anger, then she calmed herself down.

"Do you get it? There is something here, and I don't know what it is. I've read that front to back a million times. Whatever it is isn't in there. I've done everything I could. Convinced a kid to put a line of salt in the places that the kids were killed. It didn't do anything. And here you are, in my place with your gun, and I'm scared. How do you expect me to react? Of course I'm going to throw peanuts at you and put up my shield! I wanted to scare you away but you shot me and it... It hurt!" ghostly tears started to spill out of the girl's eyes and fell through the table.

"H-hey... Calm down okay? Are you sure you aren't lying?" she nodded, "how can you prove it?"

"Umm... I can't, but you can keep that gun you have pointed at me at all times if it helps you relax, and If I do something that proves I'm lying, you can shoot me." she looked at Sam with determination in her eyes, but mixed with her fear, it was clear she wasn't as sure of her self then she was trying to show.

Sam shook his head. "I'll trust you for now... You should be grateful that my brother isnt here." he put his gun in his bag, and stood up. "I need to call him. We were sure that you were the... Uh.. Yeah." he rubbed his neck. "I'll be back."

"okay." the girl slumped in her chair and relaxed slightly, causing her to fall through the seat. She groaned and continued to lay on the floor as Sam walked into the hallway, putting his phone to his ear.

"dean, hey."

"what's wrong? Did something happen? I'm not done unburying her body... This ground is like rock. Son of a bitch!"

Sam decided to ignore that last part. "no, it's not the girl. I just talked with her ghost."

"you talked to the ghost? Sammy, what the hell? Those things lie. Don't listen to her!"

"No, look, she is the schools protector. She found an old hunters manual and is using its tips to get rid of angry spirits and once or twice, a demon. If we kill her, then whatever is killing the kids is going to do it even more. She is scared, and doesn't know what it is. She has done her best to keep it away, but she can't kill it... Oh my god."

"What? Sam? What happened? Did she do something?"

"Oh she did something alright." Sam pulled the vending machine away from the wall slightly, showing some symbols. "she's got the whole place protected from demons. There are traps behind these vending machines... And an anti possession mark. That won't do much good there."

"What? Sam, don't listen to her. Things like her lie, and she will too. I'm burning the body."

"No! Dean-" the line went dead with dean hanging up.

"He didn't listen, did he?"

"No..." Sam turned to her slowly. "your name is Emma, right? I'm Sam."

"Yeah... thank you Sam. I'm just scared, and want to get rid of this thing."

"It's alright, I will help you and try to get rid of it."

The ghost of Emma nodded slowly and sniffed.

"Son of a bitch, why was this ground so hard?" dean muttered, wiping sweat off of his forehead. He sat down for a moment. "Sam, why do you insist on making friends with monsters?" he sighed and stood up, grabbing his salt and lighter fluid.

"So it doesn't get hurt from salt, and demon traps clearly do nothing. What else have you tried?" Sam asked, laying the handbook down.

"There is a lot of iron here, and I've made some traps with it, so iron doesn't do anything. I don't have silver though. I didn't think it could be a shapeshifter anyways."

"Have you done any actual fighting?"

Emma shook her head. "no, I make traps every where and get kids to make salt lines if I can't. I can sometimes get into the minds of the stupider kids and get them to do simple things like that. I try to avoid it though."

"You are amazing, so... Passive." Sam sighed. "sometimes I wish we could all be like that." he pulled a pistol out of his bag and loaded it. "these are silver bullets, just it case. Come on. Where does it strike?"

"Bathrooms."

"Right... I knew that."

"Son of a... Where did those matches go?" dean rustled through his pack, looking for the fire starters. "ah-ha!" he pulled out the box and picked up the salt, finally ready to burn the body of the girl below him.

Emma lead the way to the bathrooms that the attacks had happened in.

They could hear scuffling inside, and the ghost tensed up. "I haven't heard that... But it defiantly isn't the janitors." she muttered, inching closer to the bathroom door.

"Step aside, Emma. I will go in first." Sam went up to the door when the girl stepped to the wall, and he slowly opened it. Emma went in after him, then when he turned on the lights, she screamed.

"Wh-what the hell?" Sam asked, looking at the small people in the middle of the bathroom. Large noses, wrinkled faces, and small beady eyes blinked up at the two.

"Dwarves! Kill them!" Emma hid behind Sam and shook in a ghostly way.

"They aren't doing anything though. Wait, dwarves? They aren't real."

"In my culture, dwarves are real, and punish the dirty. The kids who were killed we're doing something to make the bathroom dirty, like graffiti. I didn't think... Please sam! Kill them!"

"I don't know how. I've never fought them before. And they aren't even doing anything. Just... Sitting there looking at us."

Emma sniffed and looked over Sam's shoulder at the little men, then burst into flame.

"Haha burn baby burn!" dean smiled smugly at the burning corpse. "no more tricking my brother for you."

He turned, coming face to face with Cas.

"Ah! Ugh, what do you want Cas? Where's your little sidekick?"

"Stop burning that body. Now."

"Too late angle boy, she's on her way to hell."

Cas glared at dean, and pointed at the fire. It went out immediately, then started to glow with a bright light.

"Cas, what the hell are you doing?"

"I have been given orders to bring this girl back to life. She was a good person, even in death, and deserves a second chance." Castiel looked back at dean for a moment, before teleporting away. Dean slowly turned back to the grave to find nothing, no body, or sign of a grave anywhere.

"Son of a bitch!" he ran across the street to the high school.

"Emma!" Sam jumped away from her when her body went up in flames. She looked at her burning arms and smiled softly. She looked up at Sam after a moment.

"It's okay Sam, I guess I haven't been doing much good, since I couldn't figure out how to kill these guys. I kinda deserve this." she looked passed Sam, over his shoulder and at the white wall. "maybe now the humming will stop."

Just before her entire body was destroyed, a beam of blinding light surrounded her, and her eyes widened. She fell to her knees and let out a piercing shriek, just as the light flooded the rest of the bathroom.

Sam shook his head, trying to wake up. He looked around, still in the bathroom, but had somehow passed out. The dwarves were gone, either ran away or disintegrated. Sam looked to where Emma had been, and saw a girl similar to the ghost but with tanner skin and slightly redder hair passed out on the floor.

"Emma Sterling has been revived."

Sam jumped at Cas's sudden appearance, and looked up at him, blinking.

"Revived? You mean..."

"Yes Sam, I brought her back to life. Those were my orders."

"Why?"

"I do not question my orders, Sam. Do not ask why. It is how it is."

"S...O...C...K...S..." the girl, human Emma, groaned and sat up.

"excuse me?" Cas blinked at her in confusion.

" S, it's Spanish for 'it is what it is'." she rubbed her eyes and looked at Cas, then gasped.

"What? Who are you? Wait, I'm alive? How? I don't understand!" She scrambled to the corner, feeling her face and looking at her hands.

"I am Castiel, angle of the lord. I have revived you."

Emma slowly looked up at Castiel, in awe. She stood up and slowly approached him. "an angel?"

"yes."

"May I touch you? I hate to be rude, but... It's not everyday you meet an angel, and my mother told me stories of Michael when I was younger..."

"You... May. I suppose." the angel squinted his eyes in confusion of the strange request, and tilted his head to the side slightly. Emma reached up and cupped his face in her hands. Her eyes closed as her fingers traced over his stubble, and Cas stared at her, bewildered at her awed and gentle touch.

"What the hell?" Emma's eyes snapped open, and turned to the door, where dean stood in confusion.

"Dean, this is Emma."

"Oh great. What are we supposed to do now? She's been dead for ten years. We can't just send her back home. Her family will freak."

"Calm down, dean. We can talk to bobby about it." Sam tried to calm his angry brother.

"No. She will travel with you. It has been decided by the lord."

"What!" both dean and Emma shouted in unison. They looked at each other, then Emma looked to Cas.

"Castiel, y-you just revived me, and expect me to travel with two strange men?" she asked, stumbling on her words slightly.

"Yes. The lord demands it."

She looked to Sam and dean, then to Cas. "umm...Castiel, can I please speak with you alone for a moment?"

"If you wish." he snapped his fingers, and the brothers next to them froze. "what is it that troubles you?"

"I know that god said I should travel with these men, but it is it safe?"

"No. It will not be safe at all. My... Acquaintances hunt spirits and demons. They are always In danger."

"Okay, I think I can handle that, I have been protecting this place from ghosts for years... But, do you trust them?"

Cas was silent for a moment, which made Emma nervous. He suddenly took her by her shoulders and knelt down to a little below her eye level. "Emma sterling, this is me, as an angel of the lord saying this, that I will trust these men with protecting you. They may not seem reliable, but they are the most important men In this century. I will always trust them. I will even go against god to trust them."

Emma blinked a few times, then took his head in her hands agains. She stood on the balls of her feet and kissed the top of his head and then nodded.

"Okay. If you trust them, I will too. But I don't like dean very much. He doesn't seem to like me either..."

"That is fine." he stood up and snapped his fingers again, making dean and sam spring back to life. Emma turned towards them.

"I'm fine with coming with you guys, because it is god who told it must be."

"Well maybe we aren't okay with it." growled dean.

"Dean, it'll be fine. Just let her come with us for a bit." Sam said, trying to get his brother to calm down.

"Not a chance, sammy. She is bad news. Just because she came back to life doesn't mean we can trust her." dean hissed, just so Sam could hear.

"Oh? But I can trust you? Dean, you died too. You were in hell. She didn't even go there. If anything, she could be better than you! What makes you so high and mighty?" Sam whispered back, efficiently ending the conversation. He turned to Emma and Castiel, and leaned down a bit. "alright Emma. You can come with us. But it'll be dangerous; we aren't the safest people to be around."

"So I've heard," she smiled and glanced at Cas, who was watching dean angrily huff by the door. "but I'll be okay. I probably won't be much help in fights, but I could help patch you up afterwards. I know how people can get hurt fighting the things you hunt."

"That's fine." Sam stood straighter and put his hand on her shoulder. "we'll take care of you, just don't mess with dean's music or car."

"Yeah, you better not hurt baby..." dean muttered, walking out of the bathroom with Sam, Emma, and Cas following behind.

Emma decided that she liked Sam a lot more than his brother. he was more open to change, at least, and capable of making jokes.

They walked out of the school and up to a sleek black car that was parked in the no parking zone. Dean got in the drivers seat, and Sam in the passenger's, and after a moment of hesitation and a look from the angel beside her, Emma got into the backseat. Castiel closed the door behind her and dissapeared.

"he really is an angel..." she whispered, awed by the thought that she had just met one of the beings that she believed and celebrated all her life.

"yeah. good for him." dean grumbled, starting the car.

"don't mind him, Emma. he just doesn't like it when we change the job on the spot." sam said, turning to her and smiling, "do you need anything?"

she looked down at her self and wrung her hands before looking back up at him. "do you think we could stop by my house? if my parents aren't there, I'd like to grab some things."

Sam looked at dean, and when he didn't do anything, the younger brother hit dean's arm.

"fine! you get seven minutes to get stuff."

"thanks, I used to live really close, and knowing my parents they wouldn't move, and they wouldn't sell my favorite things."

"just point to where we need to go." Sam smiled again, and turned back to the road.

"yeah, umm... just keep going straight and turn right on Stanford. then it's the third house on the left."

Emma leaned back as dean drove to her house, and she closed her eyes. everything felt like she was living in high definition: the purr of the car's engine, the occasional grumble from the driver, and sighed response of Sam, even her own heartbeat. heartbeat. she never thought she would feel that again. it was like someone wa pounding a drum inside her chest. she opened her eyes and looked at the men in the front seats. they didn't even seem to notice the life-giving beat happening in their own bodies. Emma looked down at herself. there was dried blood on her shirt-her blood from ten years ago- and the threads were coming apart. she'd have to change soon, so that the shirt wouldn't disintegrate. pulling her thoughts away from her shirt, she put her right hand on her chest to feel her heartbeat more.

"Emma. Emma?" she looked up abruptly at the sound of Sam calling her name, dropping her hand to her lap. "is that it?" Sam pointed out the window, and Emma's gaze followed where he pointed.

There was a small house with tan adobe-styled stucco between two larger, actual adobe houses. the front yard had one large elm tree in it, while the rest was a zero-scaped. she got out of the car and looked at the house that she hadn't seen for ten years. there was no car in the driveway, signaling that her parents weren't home, so she walked up the red stone path. she got to the door, and opened the mailbox, where the emergency key was hidden in a back secret compartment. it felt like time slowed as she unlocked the door and stepped inside. the smell hit her in a wave, the welcoming scent of red chili and pine. it caused her to stand in shock for a few minutes, as she tried hard not to cry. she missed home, not her parents, but she missed the comfort of home and her room and her computer.

"are you okay?" Sam asked as he walked up to her. she sniffed and rubbed her face then turned to him.

"yeah, just a little homesick is all. I'll go get some stuff together."

"do you want me to go with you?"

"only if you want to. I don't really care."

Emma finally stepped into her house and sighed. she made her way to the back of the house where her room had been. it was a storage place now, but there was a box labeled "Emma" in the south corner, so she paced over to it and opened it to see what her parents had kept.

There was her favorite duffel bag, that she had stolen from one of her friends who was on the track team, so the bag had the track symbol on it; her nintendo ds and a number of her most played games; several of the books she wanted but never got around to reading lined the bottom, and several clothes she wore the most. all of the necessities.  
she put all the contents of the box in the duffel, and stood up. Sam was leaning against the doorway, looking around the room. when he looked back at her he raised his eyebrows.

"you were on the track team? I didnt read anything about that."

From outside, dean honked the impala's horn loudly and impatiently.

"looks like we gotta go. but no, I stole it from a friend a long time ago."

"oh. yeah, let's go."

As they walked out of her room, Emma looked up at Sam. "what do you mean by read about me?"

"umm..." Sam reached up and scratched the back of his neck. "well I had to read up on you because we thought you were the killer. I had to figure out what your reason was. of course, I know it wasn't you now, but still."

"ah. yeah, classic case of oops, you ain't the killer." she laughed as they walked out of the house.

"looks like you two were having fun." dean grumbled when they approached the car. he was leaning against the drivers door. "just get in the car. we're going to get tacos and then back to the motel."

"oh, I know a really good place!"

* * *

**okay, so if you didnt get it, this takes place in the beginning of season four, when Cas is still loyal to heaven, so the importance of his conversation with Emma is like AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH important and made my friend scream.**

**i am expecting more reviews this time round, and thats all i wanna say for now.**


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